My 1st "publishing"

I'm an amateur - I've been shooting travel and HS basketball for 3 years. My photos had been used informally by the HS team coach/staff that I had 2 grandsons on.

One grandson went to local Junior College, so I went to their first scrimmage, went down on the floor and shot like a normal game. I usually send pics to my family and the coach, so I did this time also.

Lo and behold, the coach put my pics on the teams webpage <here> ... and then sent me an invite to a local JUCO jamboree being held at IMG ... and said the gate would have my name so I could park on the grounds instead of across-the-street parking.

The pics on the site aren't anything great cuz they've been downsized a lot, but I did catch a few. I discovered that corner shooting this level with my 85/1.8 can be challenging cuz the boys move faster and the basket area is more crowded. I'm going to shoot the next one with my 28/1.8 for wider FOV and hopefully crop to get some shots that I missed last time.

Congratulations.

Shot the JUCO Jamboree tonight. There was a guy with a Nikon there - with a 70-200 (black with a broad red ring at the base), and what looked like a 60 or 80mm. Gym shooting must have been a new venue for him, cuz he didn't know where to locate, and he didn't take many shots. Interesting.

This gym had a nice balcony running the length of the gym for video and photo - it gave my 85/1.8 enough distance for a nice FOV... but I still shot a lot from the floor with 28mm and 85mm.

Will post a link when I get one. Here's the Skydrive <link>.

Interesting comments about the Nikon shooter. I take only what I need at games for what my clients pay me for, so maybe that was what he was doing?

I looked through your skydrive and quite honestly you are overshooting and have a lot of shots that need help in terms of timing and composition. That is not addressing exposure or white balance or any other processing errors since those can be fixed.

The high angle is nice for clean shots of the guy on the ball and the guy defending him. You often have a third or fourth player that is distracting. Also I noticed a huge lack of rim/backboard action which shooting from high is very good for.

Also, lots of your shots are extremely loose. You might look into renting a 70-200 2.8 or a 300 2.8 to see the difference shooting tighter can make.

I will have to agree with what ajaffe has mentioned already. Looking through your gallery one thing that really sticks out is the lack of conflict, basketball is a sport with plenty of conflict unlike football you can see players faces which adds to a shot, like in your pic #90 player driving the paint that would have been good but timing was to early his face is covered. Practice your timing and shooting tighter. Not sure of your camera settings but the shots in your gallery are all very noisy.

As far a gear goes 70-200 and 24-70 are my standard BB gear, this year I will be adding my 200-400.

Thanks for sharing

Thanks for the comments. I shoot 28/1.8 and 85/1.8 - my goal is not so much artistic as it is to "cover" all the players. Yes, I do like the close-action shots when I can capture them.

Here's one from PhotoBucket instead of Skydrive:

PHOTOBUCKET EMBEDDING IS DISABLED BY THIS MEMBER. Photobucket sends ads instead of embedding photos from their free galleries. Click the link (if available) below to see the image in a gallery page. http://i803.photobucke​t.com …20Basketball/IM​G_8246.jpg HTTP response: 404 | MIME changed to 'image/gif' | Byte size: ZERO

To be frank, that photo is not good. It is not cropped or composed well and the timing is off.

Face, ball, action. Doesn't have to be action with another player as stock style photos are fine, but it needs some type of action. If you miss any of the 3 it typically makes a bad photo.

Not sure what you mean by artistic though, please elaborate.

By "artistic", I meant that I shoot whatever action is happening - I don't wait for the exact composition. If that means I miss an aspect of doing it correctly, then I just miss it. Sometimes with the 85mm things get crowded depending how close I am to the action.

I agree with your aspects of a good composition. When I take a slow-action pic, I always try to get all 3 elements.

But, like in this one - catching the dunk was more important to me than not catching the face. The players and coaches know who they are from the back.

PHOTOBUCKET EMBEDDING IS DISABLED BY THIS MEMBER. Photobucket sends ads instead of embedding photos from their free galleries. Click the link (if available) below to see the image in a gallery page. http://i803.photobucke​t.com …20Basketball/IM​G_8250.jpg HTTP response: 404 | MIME changed to 'image/gif' | Byte size: ZERO

Again, not a good photo. No face. You can justify it however you want, but 30 years from now that will be harder to determine who it is and also does not do anything for anyone not in the "know" like myself.

I will read the play and predict good photo moments before they happen as well as follow the play and let the action develop and take a photo too. The difference is timing and knowing when a good photo is happening.

http://csusmcougars.co​m …05124102.aspx?p​ath=mbball
was shot looser to include the fans, but is an example of what I look for in an elevated position

It's not that I am avoiding faces:

PHOTOBUCKET EMBEDDING IS DISABLED BY THIS MEMBER. Photobucket sends ads instead of embedding photos from their free galleries. Click the link (if available) below to see the image in a gallery page. http://i803.photobucke​t.com …0Basketball/IMG​_7789a.jpg HTTP response: 404 | MIME changed to 'image/gif' | Byte size: ZERO

I highly recommend taking a look at how basketball is shot by others such as SI, ESPN, Getty, AP, etc.

If you don't want to acknowledge that you have the ability to grow and improve then fair enough. Personally complacency is what tells me I need to quit something and move on.

I guess that's why I'm an amateur. Thanks for your comments.

If you are keeping 100 shots per game for the kids, then you cannot expect all of them to be print quality. You should watch the sports forum for some examples of good work and aspire to shoot maybe 5 or 6 of those per game. I realize the kids are happy to see all your pics, but be sure to shoot for yourself too.

Thank you. I have other areas where I can express my (limited) competence and artistry. The nice thing about a camera is that it is very mobile.

I realize others are shooting sports better than I - every time I view the pics of DC Fan I sigh with amazement.

bubbygator wrote in post #15138768
I'm an amateur - I've been shooting travel and HS basketball for 3 years. My photos had been used informally by the HS team coach/staff that I had 2 grandsons on.

One grandson went to local Junior College, so I went to their first scrimmage, went down on the floor and shot like a normal game. I usually send pics to my family and the coach, so I did this time also.

Lo and behold, the coach put my pics on the teams webpage <here> ... and then sent me an invite to a local JUCO jamboree being held at IMG ... and said the gate would have my name so I could park on the grounds instead of across-the-street parking.

The pics on the site aren't anything great cuz they've been downsized a lot, but I did catch a few. I discovered that corner shooting this level with my 85/1.8 can be challenging cuz the boys move faster and the basket area is more crowded. I'm going to shoot the next one with my 28/1.8 for wider FOV and hopefully crop to get some shots that I missed last time.

bubbygator,

Congrats!

You are absolutely correct in that the kids love to see pics of themselves even if they aren't of pro quality or publishing material. Like you I also publish a lot of pics from each game and only a handful would be considered worthy of being keepers for pros, but the kids remember the particular plays and enjoy seeing what they did at that time.

I publish my pics to Facebook now; I used to mainly use Webshots and Fotki (And still do for full size copies), but Facebook is where the kids want them so that's where mine go. Some of my most commented upon pics are faceless and just before or after the best action, but the kids know what happened.

We should embrace our inner amateur yet strive to achieve the ability to shoot like a pro. Perhaps shoot like a pro and upload like an amateur? The most important thing is to have fun what we're doing IMO.